Independent Thinking in a Red-Blue Town

Reading major newspapers and listening to NPR this morning, I don't hear anyone asking what seem to me to be the obvious questions about Castro's condition: Is Castro alive? Is he incapacitated? Did he compose or approve the statement read in his name? In a secretive dictatorship, you can't believe everything the regime says. Raul Castro and his colleagues may be trying to create the impression of a gradual transition. On the other hand, it could well be the case that Fidel is himself trying to prepare Cubans for a transition that will happen eventually. I'm just surprised that no one seems to be asking whether Fidel directed this cession of power himself -- except in the streets of Miami.